ACS: MMA's Next Superpower

MMA’s Next Superpower

TEMPE, Ariz. -- The rise to power of Arizona Combat Sports as one
of the top mixed martial arts gyms in the country was slow and
steady. This was no overnight emergence.

ACS was started by two twin brothers who had no plans to run a
martial arts school as their full-time profession. Todd and
Trevor
Lally just wanted a place to train after they relocated from
Washington’s rain-drenched climate to Arizona’s barren desert.

Like many teenagers, the Lally brothers sought outlets through
which to release their testosterone-fueled aggression. After team
sports like rugby left them unfulfilled, they turned to martial
arts. In 1991, after checking out several schools advertising “the
fast track to becoming a certified black belt or your money back,”
the brothers took a trip to the American Martial Arts Center, a
local gym in Kirkland, Wash. Unbeknownst to the Lally brothers,
they had stepped into what would later become AMC Kickboxing &
Pankration, one of the sport’s top academies, now run by Matt Hume.
Josh
Barnett, Hayato "Mach"
Sakurai and Rich
Franklin have all called it home at one time or another.

“I was 17 years old, and I walked in the door and I saw Maurice
Smith sparring someone, U.S. muay Thai champion Curtis Schuster
[and] boxer Kim Messer,” Trevor said. “Legendary muay Thai
instructor Haru Shimanishi came up to us and said to me and my
brother, ‘You guys have the body of a Porsche, but you don’t know
how to drive it. I will show you how to drive that car.’ As an
angry 17-year-old kid, that’s what I wanted to hear.”

The Birth of ACS

Mainly testing themselves in kickboxing and Pankration tournaments
prior to their involvement in MMA, the Lally brothers received
their big break when they were asked to live and train at the Super
Tiger gym in Japan while they competed inside the Shooto
organization.

Following their stint overseas, the twins returned home to
Washington. They would soon separate for one of the few times in
their lives when Todd took an offer to train at John Lewis’
martial arts school in Las Vegas. Trevor remained in the Seattle
suburbs until he was offered the chance to leave the comforts of
home in favor of Arizona.

“I came down here with Danny
Bennett, a muay Thai world champion, and looked in on a couple
of the gyms down here and realized they didn’t know what they were
doing,” Trevor said. “I was fresh off [the] Abu Dhabi [Submission
Wrestling World Championships], and Danny was fresh off his Super
Brawl win over Jay R.
Palmer and a lot of gyms didn’t want us there. We would offer
to teach class for free if they would let us work out there, and
all the gyms said no.”

The solution was simple. Trevor, by then a 10-year veteran of
martial arts, decided if he could not train anywhere, he would
create his own opportunities.

“So we started our own gym,” Trevor said. “Todd came up with the
name Arizona Combat Sports, and we buried it in downtown Tempe off
by the train tracks. It was a 1,500-square-foot shack. After a year
and half, it became 2,500 square feet, but Danny had to go back
home to be with his family.”

Once they added Gustavo
Dantas, an Andre
Pederneiras black belt, as the school’s Brazilian jiu-jitsu
coach, the core team that would carry ACS was in place.

‘We Beat the Punk Out of You’

The professional fight team started out small, with Ray and
Steve
Steinbeiss forming the foundation. In 2006, Arizona Combat
Sports received its first taste of national attention when then
21-year-old Jesse
Forbes was chosen for Season 3 of “The Ultimate Fighter”
reality series. Two months later, another ACS mainstay, Jamie
Varner, accepted the call and made his UFC debut against
Hermes
Franca.

“

They came over here to check
us out, and it’s been money
ever since. Honestly, I credit
Jesse Forbes with all the ASU guys.

”

-- Trevor Lally on ACS's love of
ASU wrestlers.

The Lally brothers love to hang their hats on the
fact that homegrown talent litters the ACS roster. Young
up-and-coming fighters like Jacob
McClintock and Ultimate Warrior Challenge flyweight champion
Pat
Runez are on track to become the next ACS athletes to make
splashes on the big stage.

Arizona Combat Sports has also quickly gained a reputation of
turning collegiate wrestlers into balanced mixed martial artists.
Located within in a stone’s throw of the Arizona State University
main campus, the opportunity to cross pollinate with a Pac-10 power
has become one of the gym’s hallmarks. All-American wrestlers
Ryan
Bader, CB Dollaway
and Aaron
Simpson have all honed their MMA skills inside ACS.

“Jesse Forbes would go in there to help them wrestle, and they
liked what he had,” Trevor said. “They came over here to check us
out, and it’s been money ever since. Honestly, I credit Jesse
Forbes with all the ASU guys.”